Music Reviews Feed

Real Animal

goodwink — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:15:00 -0800

Alejandro Escovedo has been in the rock and roll business for 30 years now, but Real Animal, his first major-label release, is the breakthrough that puts together his disparate pieces.

Learning to Bend

goodwink — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:15:00 -0800

Learning to Bend
Ben Sollee

Singer-songwriter-cellist Ben Sollee, 24, is at the beginning of what promises to be a very interesting American roots music career. Yes, you read that right—“cellist” and “roots music” in the same sentence. You hear “cello” and you think chamber music? Well, this young Kentuckian wants to change that—and more.

Life, Death, Love and Freedom

goodwink — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:46:05 -0700

Life Death Love and Freedom, John Mellencamp (Hear Music, 2008)

The Geography of Light

goodwink — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:19:53 -0700

Carrie Newcomer (Rounder, 2008)

Back when I used to sort my CDs into categories (back when I still bought CDs), one section was devoted to inspirational female artists whose lyrics spoke to my life’s experiences. Too bad I didn’t know about Carrie Newcomer back then. She would have fit in perfectly with the Indigo Girls, Alanis Morissette, and Dar Williams.

Coal

goodwink — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:12:58 -0700

Kathy Mattea (R.E.D. Distribution, 2008)

Kathy Mattea has always been an odd country music star. She's an environmental activist in a genre that often glorifies gas-guzzling trucks. She's a classically trained singer with folk leanings in a business now dominated by simplistic pop-rock. And she's a Catholic in a world in which most of the artists, and their audiences, are evangelical Protestants.

Washington Square Serenade

U.S. Catholic — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:12:04 -0700

Steve Earle (New West, 2007)

Steve Earle is, without question, the most overtly political artist in American popular culture. For a long time his activism (and songwriting) focused on his opposition to the death penalty. But shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan, he wrote a sympathetic ballad about John Walker Lindh (the American Taliban), and he only got more pointed and confrontational from there.

Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

U.S. Catholic — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:55:06 -0700

Drive-By Truckers (New West, 2008)